My father gifted me this book just before I left for Thailand – a fortuitous thing, because lightweight (physically speaking), thin and interesting are very important for something that has to be carried around for an extended period of time and compete with clothes, meds, and tchotchkes for space.

The author came it the subject from the perspective of a philosopher and quickly moved into a fairly spirited defense of conceptual and avant-garde art, which, as an appreciator of conceptual and avant-garde art, I appreciated.

The place where she lost was in talking about film, which is odd, because she has, apparently, written a book on film studies. She totally missed that Starship Troopers is a biting and vicious satire. She also got The Matrix wrong, but I tend to think that movie is overrated – less an intellectual achievement than fine popcorn actioner that figured out how to use Keanu Reeves limited, but still excellent talents (when properly harnessed).